View full sizeJim O'Connor/US PresswireRutgers guard Eli Carter puts up the winning basket against Florida's Patric Young (4) tonight at the Rutgers Athletic Center in Piscataway.

He was worn down, exhausted. People grabbed him from all sides. They wanted handshakes, high-fives, autographs. For those who couldn’t make it down to the court for the madness, a wave would’ve done. Whatever Eli Carter did to appease them, it wasn’t enough. They wanted more. They chanted his name.

E-li Car-ter! E-li Car-ter! E-li Car-ter!

More and more attention, they wanted from the Rutgers freshman guard. After all, why wouldn’t he do it? All he had done the entire night was give. Thirty-one points. An upset in double-overtime, 85-83 over the No. 10 team in the country, the Florida Gators. Eli Carter had it all, but all he wanted was rest. They didn’t relent. They chanted his name louder.

E-li Car-ter! E-li Car-ter! E-li Car-ter!

“I just tried to stay calm,” Carter said. “When the ball was in my hands, I knew I could take it.”

It sounded so simple listening to him explain it. And frankly, it looked just as simple watching it take place on the floor. He took 24 shots, made half of them and seemingly every big one in every big spot. There was the layup with under 80 seconds to play in regulation, which drew Rutgers to within two. There was the 3-pointer in the face of a Florida defender with 18 seconds to go in the first overtime.

That tied it and sent the Rutgers Athletic Center into a state of frenzy. Then for good measure, he added two more jumpers in the second overtime to keep the lead out of reach for the Gators and deliver the win for the Scarlet Knights.

“I know him like the back of a book,” said teammate Jerome Seagears, who had 13 points. “In practice, he has those days when he’s on and he might as well be Bernard King on Christmas Day.”

On a night that was supposed to be all about the homecoming for former Rutgers star, Mike Rosario, Carter’s performance stole the show. (Rosario played only 14 minutes and scored five points.) He led the trio of freshmen guards, which led the Scarlet Knights (8-5) against Florida (10-3) all night. There was Myles Mack — who had 16 points all after the first half — who hit big 3-pointers. Seagears made key layups and rarely-used big man Derrick Randall helped lock down Gators center Patric Young.

This though, was Carter’s night.

“I had no doubt who I was giving the ball to and what way I was going,” said Rutgers coach Mike Rice, who owns two wins over top-10 teams in 45 games. “It was one or two or three different plays — that’s good to have. I really didn’t have that last year. ... I’ve got somebody that I’m confident is going to make something happen, something positive for us.”

There was though a point in the season, when that status was called into question.

In the waning moments against another SEC team, LSU on Dec. 3, Carter and the two other freshmen guards passed up potential game-winning shots. Rice said that they caved in. The big moment that all players want was too big for them. That low point became the catalyst for tonight’s theatrics.

“We just told ourselves, we were never going to let that happen to us again,” Seagears said. “With that being said, we were all kind of gun-shy. We let that be a learning experience for us. And tonight, as you can see, we went out and we didn’t hold anything back.”

As shot after shot out of Carter’s hands fell through the net, it kept smacking the Gators back down. But the backbreaker — the shot that propelled Rutgers to an unlikely victory — was the pull-up, in-your-face 3-pointer with 0:18 to play in the first overtime. That was the shot that he had passed up only weeks earlier.

This time he took it. This time he embraced the big stage.

That was why everyone wanted a piece of Carter afterward. That was why the chants rained down from the top of the rejuvenated RAC. He had given everyone what they wanted.

More.

“I think my team had confidence in me,” Carter said. “Coach Rice, the assistants. I took the big shot and I made it.”